Paknar haor boro crops flooded too [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Paknar haor boro crops flooded too

Local April 25, 2017

Busting the protection embankment, the gushing flood water inundated early Monday the boro crops of Paknar haor, the second largest wetlands in Sunamganj, leaving no hope left for the residents of more than 60 villages.
Local people said the floodwater started to enter the haor breaching the embankment at village Sajanpur beside the River Titain at Rafinagar union under Derai upazila around 5:30am.
Wahid Ali, a farmer of village Vinnazara under Tanerbag union of Jamalganj upzaila, lamented that his seven-member family would have nothing to sustain in the coming days as paddy in his four-acre land was washed away by the water.
‘Half-ripen boro crops of around 9,500 hectare land of the haor, located at Jamalganj and Derai upazila in Sunamganj and Khaliajuri upazila in Netrakona, have gone under water in a matter of only two hours after the protection dam collapsed,’ Rafinagar union chairman Rezwan Hossain Khan said.
Farmers of more than 60 villages of surrounding the haor had been working voluntarily for the last one month to maintain the protection embankment and save their paddy, which was the lone annual crop in the region.
But all was in vain as the pressure of water coming from upstream across the border was too strong this time, he said, expressing his despair.
‘Not only the haor protection dam, most of the roads in the area have also gone under two to three feet water this time,’ Rezwan continued.
He demanded that apart from enhancing navigation of the rivers and canals in the area, the embankments should also be constructed higher to secure the wetlands’ crops.
Karuna Sindu Talukder, chairman of Fenarbak union under the Jamalganj upazila, however, alleged that the protection embankment’s eight kilometre stretch under the Rafinagar union, remained damaged most of the time of the year.
‘Water Development Board did not take any special measure to repair the embankment, despite getting sufficient fund and repeated requests from the local people for job,’ he complained.
Jamalganj upazila agricultural extension officer Safayat Siddiquee informed that the production target of Paknar Haor crops was 34,200 tonnes this year.
Sunamganj deputy commissioner Rafiqul Islam told New Age that the crops of Paknar Haor was the last hope for the farmers of this region after all of the major haors, including Shanir Haor, were inundated by the untimely flash-floods.
‘Administrative officers of the respected upazilas have been ordered to take immediate initiatives to launch
the VGF, fair price and OMS programmes in extended volume for the people of the flood-hit areas,’ the deputy commissioner said.
Almost 90 per cent out of 2.26 lakh hectare boro crops in Sunamganj was damaged in the flash-flood caused by heavy rainfall and onrush of water coming from upstream across the border.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission on Monday said they did not find any presence of uranium in samples collected from haor waters.
BAEC member Dilip Kumar Saha said they ran the same tests in their two laboratories in Dhaka and Savar to be sure through cross-check.
‘The tests could detect neither uranium nor thorium nor chromium in the samples,’ added Dilip.
The samples tested were collected from five haors in Sunamganj. The samples included water, sediments from haor-beds and dead fish and ducks.
After a qualitative study of the samples on Sunday, the BAEC had said that the radioactivity level in haor waters was less than normal.